It's formally
called the Preservation of Lao Manuscripts Programme (PLMP). The
funding agency has been the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Federal
Republic of Germany. It was originally set for a ten year period
from 1992 to 2002. And as reported in the local newspapers, the
funding has been continued and extended.
According to
the project description, the activities include:
...manuscript
holdings of some 650 selected Buddhist monasteries will be preserved
and important documents microfilmed. Work is carried out involving
strong participation of local people. Manuscripts are systemically
scrutinized, reassembled, cleaned, titled, classified according
to their content, and bibliographic data collected to be entered
into a computerized database. Damaged documents are restored and
repaired where necessary...then stored in an appropriate way.
Laos now receives
$500M of aid and grants as well as loans.
For a list of
NGOs operating in Laos you can visit the undplao.org website. Additionally,
there is a yellow directory book of most NGOs in Laos with a description
on their operations, budget, staff, etc. It's only been published
and revised approximately half a dozen times and mostly distributed
among the donor and NGO community. But it's a wonderful compilation.
{Update,
2005: Check out a new online version at Directory
of NGOs}
